But Canada, I’m holding you accountable for my newest obsession:
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This kid.
That’s right. I’m calling Shawn Mendes a kid. Why? He was born in 1998 – the same year I graduated high school. I could technically be his teen mom.
No doubt you’re familiar with Shawn Mendes and his music. In fact, I’m convinced that for every Ed Sheeran song played on the radio, stations are legally required to follow up with “There’s Nothing Holding Me Back” or “Stitches.” If you have a tween to teenaged child with raging hormones, you’ve probably heard “Mercy” blasting out of a bedroom and a sudden passionate desire to visit Canada, specifically Toronto.
Even my 8 year old niece has “dumped” her “boyfriend” Nick Jonas for Shawn Mendes. She’s such a heartbreaker and I’m so proud.
But while I understood the appeal – clean cut look with freakishly straight teeth, just enough tattoos that give him that edge but not too many that makes him “dangerous,” Canadian manners that are practically in a category all by themselves – I was never a real fan of his music. It wasn’t that I hated his songs or wished them to be burn in the seventh layer of hell; it was just not my style.
That all changed a few weeks ago when, during my routine morning commute to work, an innocuous satellite radio search ended with me reduced to screaming tween status. What had such power over me?
Shawn Mendes’ “In My Blood”
There’s nothing overtly sexual about this video unless you count the flowers at the end, Georgia O’Keefe. However, after watching this video on a loop multiple times, it hit me like when that rain perfectly hits his ribbed sweater and clings to his defined upper chest:
I Have a Cougar Crush on Shawn Mendes.
Basically I’m on par with teenagers and my eight year old niece. Does this deter me from my crush? Absolutely not. He’s maturing in his music, his look, and fingers crossed – his women.
His voice is both vulnerable and passionate. He sings about drinking – the legal drinking age in Toronto is 19, so we’re good – and taking a woman home to ease his pain. With “In My Blood,” Shawn Mendes just proved he’s the hot protagonist in some young adult novel that we all agree is hookup worthy.
Laying on the bathroom floor, feeling nothing
I’m overwhelmed and insecure, give me something
I could take to ease my mind slowly
Just have a drink and you’ll feel better
Just take her home and you’ll feel better
Keep telling me that it gets better
Does it ever?Help me, it’s like the walls are caving in
Sometimes I feel like giving up
No medicine is strong enough
Someone help me
I’m crawling in my skin
Sometimes I feel like giving up
But I just can’t
It isn’t in my blood
But the song isn’t a love song at all – it’s about someone trying to escape the pain of life, trying anything and everything but still suffering, and just wanting anyone to help. It’s an anthem that speaks to so many people, including our teenagers today – the need to release the pain, whether it be emotional or physical, and the need to connect with others. Shawn Mendes is no longer a teenage pop singer, lamenting over a crush. He’s a man, exposing his flaws, fear, and needs.
This Shawn Mendes is angst-driven, raw, and I’m unabashedly and unequivocally here for it.
